I am in such good company here – who doesn’t recognize a Marilyn Minter when they see one?

Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects, while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS.

There will be a Preview Party Friday, January 6 from 6 – 8 p.m. The Benefit Sale of postcard-sized art begins on Saturday, January 7th from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and continues through Sunday, January 8th from Noon until 4 p.m.

Postcards from the Edge is an exhibit and benefit sale of over 1500 one-of-a-kind postcard-size works of art by established and emerging artists. All artworks at Postcards from the Edge benefit are exhibited anonymously. The works are signed on the back only and though viewers receive a list of all participating artists, they don’t know who created which piece until purchased.

Postcards from the Edge will be hosted at Cheim & Read from January 6-8, 2012

Presumably, what irks Hirst is that Cartrain used Hirst’s diamond skull in a series of collaged portraits of the skull’s creator. Hirst successfully demanded that all the young artist’s works incorporating the diamond skull should be handed over, presumably to be destroyed.

But I can report that not every Cartrain collage featuring Hirst’s skull has been seized. One exists and is in the public domain. I am its proud owner, having been given it by the artist. Here is a portrait for our time.

It catches Hirst in middle age perfectly, does it not? I particularly like the NHS spectacles, a cruel reference to Hirst’s geeky specs. The Blue Peter badge is another hilarious touch.

Seriously – this is an excellent dadaist collage that makes a lot of “official” contemporary art look pretentious. I thought this when I chanced on a Hirst portrait that Cartrain infiltrated into the National Portrait Gallery last year, and I think it even more looking at this image. I wonder if the real reason for Hirst’s antagonism is that Cartrain has done the same as all great caricaturists down the ages: created a vicious but insidiously memorable image of his target.

Anyway, it exists, free and unfettered. Hirst’s lawyers cannot have this one.